1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to a simple magnetic apparatus for the treatment of cataracts and other eye conditions.
2. Description of Related Art
Cataract is the leading cause of blindness in the world today, while age-related macular degeneration is responsible for the majority of new cases of visual impairment in the western world. It is estimated that in 2004, 1.75 million U.S. residents have significant symptoms associated with age-related macular degeneration. The challenge is awesome: More than 160 million people have visual impairment, with three quarters of the cases related to cataract and two thirds of them avoidable. Sixty percent of world blindness occurs in China, India and Sub-Saharan Africa; blindness numbers are estimated to be increasing at the rate of more than 2 million cases annually; and as the population ages, the number of people older than 45 years is expected to double by the year 2020.
Cataract is treated with surgery because no other medical treatment has been found to prevent or to reverse senile cataract. However cataract surgery involve certain risks. Park and Kim reporting on 35 eyes of 35 patients they found that tear occurred during phacoemulsification in 51.4% of cases, during irrigation and aspiration in 34.4%, and during capsulorrhexis or lens implantation in the remainder. After the tear had occurred, careful and adequate vitrectomy, attention to lens positioning and anterior chamber reconstruction allowed a final vision of 0.8 or better in 60% of eyes, and 0.5% or better in 77.1%.
Furthermore cataract surgery increases the risk for late age-related maculopathy (ARM). The Beaver Dam eye study found an association of cataract and subsequent risk for early ARM.
Nevertheless surgical removal remains the standard treatment for cataract now and in the foreseeable future. Cataract surgery is the most frequently performed surgery in the United States, with over 1.5 million cataract surgeries done each year. Nine out of 10 people who have cataract surgery regain very good vision, somewhere between 20/20 and 20/40. The worldwide burden of this problem is immense. While results for the treatment of cataracts are excellent today, improvements in safety and refraction precision are needed. Other approaches are desperately needed to stem the worldwide tide of cataract related ocular dysfunction.
Alternative approaches to the treatment of cataracts exist. Among the alternative approaches is the use of magnetic therapy. Magnetic therapy is the application of magnetic fields on parts of the body to speed healing, relieve pain and inflammation, and improve bodily function. Possible beneficial effects on blood flow in and around the optic nerve head and on direct protection of retinal ganglion cells, so-called neuroprotection, may be attained by the use of magnetotherapy.
In recent times, the biological effects of magnetic fields have been studied in Japan, the Soviet Union, Europe and the United States. Most of the Japanese products used in magnetic therapy are bipolar in the sense that when they are used, they apply both North and South pole magnetic energies to the body. Numerous theories and hypothesis have been proposed to explain the observed effects, but at this time there is still no single explanation, which is accepted as definitive.
A U.S. researcher, Albert Roy Davis, is credited with the discovery of that the two poles of a magnet have different and essentially opposite effects on both living and non-living systems, and contrary to the action of most of the Japanese devices, the energy from essentially one pole or other is used. These polar effects are deemed monopolar for one pole. The poles spin in opposite directions and have opposite properties. Specifically North Pole energies rotate in a counter-clockwise direction and have been found to cause mass to contract and condense. On the other hand, South Pole energies rotate in a clockwise direction and cause mass to expand and dissipate.
McLaughlan at Oxford University reported effects by very weak magnetic fields on chemical reactions and suggests that they are influencing the spin state of electrons in such a way to slow down their reaction.